Managing Economy: Getting an Edge Over Your Opponents

Economy is the most important in-game feature besides the scoreline that separates the two teams in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. This article is designed to give you knowledge about things that can influence the economy as well as to help you make a better decision the next time you encounter a familiar situations from economical point of view. To understand why economy is so important we must explore what it affects. Economy heavily ties in with your skill and scoreline: Skilled players on your team will naturally give you a bloom to your economy; And skill is supported by a stable economy will grant you round wins, leading to deserved victory.

In other words good economy is a gateway to winning the game. But being skilled does not guarantee you healthy economical situation. In fact, in professional scene upsets happen when less skillful teams gets a good grip on money. The best upset teams are known for grinding the rounds and not throwing away any unnecessary utility, thus securing them economical advantage. In Counter-Strike economy does not just mean material situation of your team, but the combination of being wealthy and keeping your opponent's money low. As an underdog team, you don’t want your opponents to gain into the same monetary position as you on you because that gives an equal opportunity for both teams, which always favours the more skilled players. It is really tough to get that edge on good teams because they understand the economy concepts just as well if not better than the good underdogs.

 Why It is Important to Understand Economy

After we explored the effects of economy on the game, the next reasonable question would be “How can my gameplay affect the game’s economy?”. Most players ask themselves this question very soon after they begin to grasp basic gameplay mechanics, but their limited knowledge about the game doesn’t let them give the best answers, and as a result their decisions might not be very effective or could be plain wrong. The more they play, the more elaborate their reasons behind those economic decisions will be. However, even after countless hours of gameplay, your knowledge of the game might still not be full, and what’s even more common experienced players can’t make the best decision on the spot even in familiar situations.

General Tips on Building up The Economy

Having a healthy amount of money is beneficial for both T and CT side of course, but it is much more crucial to have more money as a CT player due to more expensive weapons, kits, and heavier grenade requirements. As a result, counter-terrorists will force less and double eco a lot more. Another thing that the terrorists have to help them get extra money is bomb plant money which we will talk about later. Let’s look at how the players can make their money grow. Natural economic growth occurs once you start having round winning sprees. How to win rounds is outside of the topic, but let us look at how we can ensure that we have racked up some money after those round wins. The key to building up economy throughout those round wins is taking no unnecessary risks. Not only you can lose the rounds for your teammates this way, but you also significantly damage your money by having to rebuy. Also you give an option of a weapon upgrade to the opponent. Having synchronised buys with your team; selecting an appropriate weapon for the current economic situation; and getting bomb plants as terrorists are also some of the most important factors to keep the economy on your side.

Starting First Rounds

As a Counter-Terrorist: Pistol round is generally the most impactful round in the game of economy. As it is more important to have good economy as a CT side, pistol round is crucial for CTs. Let’s assume we won the pistol round as counter-terrorists. In the current meta, if terrorists have planted, they will save for the next round because they will be able to full buy. Although, if you are playing in a matchmaking or a pug, don’t be surprised to see a buy coming out regardless. It is a good idea to have 3 rifles/anti-armour SMGs (UMP-45 and P90) and 2 regular SMGs, just so you can be prepared for a buy, but still have weapons good for farming money.

It is extremely important to not take any unnecessary risks as it leads to losing equipment, and to keep as many players alive as possible during that round. It will make a difference between being able to buy again after losing on the first gun round and not being able to buy. If the terrorists don’t get the bomb plant on the pistol round then you can safely say that they are going to force buy. This is due to the fact that the only way terrorists will be able to buy on the 3rd round after having no bomb plant on the pistol round is if the terrorists get bomb plant on the second round, while saving. This is an extremely tall task against rifle/SMG mix. So, in case Ts don’t get bomb planted on the pistol round, be ready to buy 3 rifles and 2 anti-armour SMGs. The reason why you don’t want to buy all 5 rifles is because it is dangerous to give those to rushing terrorists, and when CTs have spent less money on their weapon, they can afford a full utility belt.

In case you win all rounds leading up to a gunround, the question is do you have enough money to rebuy the next round if you lose together with your team. If not, then you should consider spending as much money on this round as you can, so you can assure victory on this round. Keep in mind your teammates’ money the entire time. Just because you won’t be able to full buy on the next round, doesn’t mean you have to spend all your money if your teammates can buy up. What about losing the pistol round on CT? This is where people will have a split opinion, so you should decide what to do with your fellow teammates. Generally speaking you will only have a gun round on the fourth round, unless you win an eco. On some maps good amount of grenades is more important then on the others: Cache, Train, Inferno are the maps you might consider save more on the second round than the others (Although force buys can be very powerful on both Cache and Inferno).

As a Terrorist: Winning pistol round as a T, it is much easier to play anti-eco, and usually results in a quick 3-0 scoreline. However, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take those round seriously. Those rounds are an easy gateway to win the entire game, by just trumping your opponent’s economy. I, personally like to run 3 SMGs, 2 rifles on the second round, but it depends on your team how you want to do it. Try to hit the site together, but make sure it isn’t stacked. This will allow you to get bomb down consistently. Do not hunt during those rounds, as it isn’t worth it, especially on the third round. CTs are going to be buying up next round, it doesn’t make a difference if they save a weapon, but it would make a difference if that weapon kills 3 people hunting. If you build up a really good economy by the buy round, you can use your monetary momentum to apply crushing amount of pressure on CTs.

Quick overview of various sources of income Source: WarOwl's Economy Tutorial

Keeping the Money in Later Rounds

Most of the tips for the early rounds apply to the late ones, except you can be a bit bolder with risks. Later on in the rounds, it’s much harder to have a good read on your opponent’s buys, but that is a crucial factor in making the right purchases at the beginning of the round and taking the right approach to deal with the situation. Determining whether opponents are buying or saving requires game sense, and understanding of patterns that you have seen so far in the current match or in previous games, and unfortunately there are no easy ways to learn how to do it.

Watching demos and constantly thinking about the game while playing will help you to make the correct assessment of different situations. Although it can be challenging, tiresome, and can make a heavy impact on your frags, it is recommended to become a smarter, more complete player. While it is a good idea when having scarce money to only buy the grenades that you intend to use, if you have some spare money it makes sense to buy as many grenades as you can. Things don’t always go according to plan, in fact most of the time when you still need to worry about economy, they are not going to go your way, and you never know when you might need that extra flashbang or a grenade. In late rounds, you want to use all your utility to gain as much advantage as you can over your opponents, and that’s where the money you made early in the rounds will come in for help.

It is pointless to try to save your utility when getting into firefights because what good is your saved incendiary if you are dead. Rather, use all your grenades if you have a higher chance of making all that money back and more after winning the round doing so. In conclusion, the most important principles to understand about managing the economy are not giving up any equipment that should have been saved; taking the proper weapons and grenades for proper situations; assessing the monetary situation of the enemies; and building strong bank since the beginning of the half.

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